An Indonesian passenger plane carrying 192 people from China
to Bali was forced to turn back after the crew realised one of its
doors was not properly closed, the airline said Friday.

It was the latest problem to hit an airline from Indonesia, which
relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands but
has a poor safety record and has suffered several fatal crashes in
recent years.

The Boeing 737 operated by Sriwijaya Air was 1.5 hours into the
five-hour flight Thursday when its system detected that a passenger door
at the front of the aircraft had not shut properly, said spokesman Agus
Soedjono.

"The system did not detect this prior to the flight, but when the plane was up in the air, it was detected," he told AFP.

The plane returned to the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, where
it had set out from, and was checked for 30 minutes before taking off
again for Denpasar, the capital of the resort island of Bali.

The plane was carrying 180 passengers and 12 crew but after it was
forced to turn back, about 20 passengers decided not to continue when
the aircraft set off again for Bali, he said.

No one was hurt or injured in the incident.

Sriwijaya flies to Indonesian destinations and a handful of international destinations.

It has suffered three accidents since 2008 that caused substantial
damage to the aircraft involved, according to the Aviation Safety
Network, which monitors plane accidents.